Regular Service on July 2013 - A really late post

Alright, this is a pretty late post.  I thought I've posted it before.  Anyway, as usual brought my Is-Is to Vision auto again for the regular service.  This time around it cost me about RM16**.**.  The reason is because it's about time to change all four tires, with each one cost me RM320.00.  The changed tire is of the Michelin brand.  The previous one is also of Michelin, and due to the fact that the one I previously had on my car is no longer in production, therefore Vision has to give me this tire instead, which is RM60 more, and supposed to be better than the previous one.  Well, at least the spec is really showing that it's a better tire, so I won't complain much about that.

This round of service did not require me to change any major component, so I was happy with it.

Changing the front headlamp light bulb for the first time...

Well, previously, I did replace the light bulb for the headlamp (low beam) at the service center that I regularly patron. That time it was the left hand side low beam light bulb that went off. Then, after my last major service, the right hand side low beam light bulb went off after 2 weeks. This time, instead of going back to the service center, I planned to see if I could buy it off the shelves from any car spare part shops. In the end I managed to get it, from a shop located in Suria Mas Sunway Damansara. This time, because I replacing it myself, it doesn't cost me that much money as I got the same replacement light bulb at nearly half the price of what I need to pay for at the service center. Well, can't really compare it in such a way since the nature of the business is different. At least it provides me with an alternative in case I really can't afford to replace it at the center during the regular servicing.

Another routine service on 2013-02 & apology

Okay, before that I'd like to apologize for all the questions in the comments left on my blog post. I hardly read my own blog because my intention of having this blog is to keep a record of how I've done so far with the car just in case that I could have it as a reference. I thought that it could be useful for other owners as well just in case, but never thought that it would attract people to come to read it and leave comments and questions. So, really really apologize to those who's been asking questions.

Right, I'll talk about the maintenance first. This time, as usual went back to Vision Auto again (located in Bangsar, their website is www.tomsracing.com.my). This time I'll need to give it a major service, which include the regular oil change, brake check, automatic transmission oil change, spark plug change, wheel alignment & balancing, and a system diagnosis. This time however I need to change the wiper again, which I thought that's pretty fast!!! Well, I did notice that the wiper is not able to wipe the windscreen during rainy days, so I gave them the green light to change it. This time also, the other side of the drive shaft boot is showing wearing sign as well, so I have to replace it as well. All in all, the total as accumulated to RM 1,700.00++. Well, if I didn't change the drive shaft boot, it will be RM 600 less. The reason for that extra RM600 is because of the price of the part + labour costs. Yes, they'll charge extra for other parts changes, which they have already stated in their pricing info, so I'm totally fine with it.

But strangely however the drive shaft boots wearing out. So I asked the servicing manager that attended to my car on what could be the cause to this issue. He told me it can be caused by constant stretching of that section, normally will only happened during turning in corner. Ouch, I guess it has to do with my driving habit then because I do have a few times driving it fast through a corner. Isis is not designed to be a car for high speed cornering, so it's definitely my bad. But anyway, thank goodness that they're able to help me to identify that issue, otherwise I may ended up paying a lot more if the whole drive shaft is damaged.

After the service though, I do noticed that during driving, it's producing some high pitch sound. However, as with my previous experience, my Isis would occasionally produce those sound. I have no idea why, but the mechanic in Vision auto told me that just drive it for a while first, and if the sound is coming out very frequently, only then send it back to them for a check. So, will just have to drive it a while first to observe it.

Now, back to the questions that been asked a while back (sorry again...).

1. For the location of the Vision Auto, it's already mentioned above.
2. As to how much I bought mine? Well, I bought mine back in 2007 for a cost of RM140K. Mine is also a 2005 model, single automatic door, 1.8L, no rear camera, with body kit, no extra gadget. The 2.0L version comes with either 2WD or 4WD, and it would have 20 more horse power, but a lower mileage/liter average than the 1.8L. The 1.8L could give 14KM/L, whereas 2.0L could give 11KM/L, according to the published spec in the official Japanese Toyota website. Those spec is accurate because so far my Isis does 14KM/L based on the indicator from the on board panel, even after 5 years of driving it.
3. So far I have no issue with this car because it fits my purpose pretty well. The main reason for me to have this car is because I want to be able to fetch people esp. older people with comfort, but within whatever I could afford (the maintenance fee, road tax, etc). I can't afford an Estima or Alphard or Vellfire, so this is my choice. It is not a fast car, so can't expect much from that perspective. But I'd dare to say that it's a comfortable passenger car (minus the passenger in the last row if they're tall people...). Plus, its seat arrangement is really a plus, which can be used to carry stuff around (but not sure about bicycle because I haven't tried it yet). So, it can be considered as a good car for day to day living, if POWER!!! is not really of a concern. However, I do need to point out some issue here. The basic model may not have the air conditioning in the last row, which can be quite inconvenient esp. during hot day and the car is full with passengers.
4. I've often heard about people saying that the spare part of this car is really hard to find. Well, one thing I need to say is that the windscreen? Yes, it can be very hard to find the windscreen replacement. But as for the engine, and the drive train? I don't think it's an issue because it uses the 1ZZ-FE engine, which is exactly the same engine used in the previous (the one before the current facelift model) Toyota Corolla Altis. The automatic transmission of mine is also the same as that model of Altis. Plus, most of the Toyota models as I read from the official Toyota Japanese website, almost most of them are sharing the same engine and drive train, i.e. Toyota Isis and Toyota Wish, both are using the same engine and the same transmission for their 1.8 and 2.0 model. So if it's engine parts, I don't think it's of any issue. Of course , the cosmetic spare parts would be a different story, such as the windscreen that I mentioned earlier.

One interest thing to note. In Japan, the Isis has been updated with newer engine back in 2007 and 2009. I'm not sure if they've done any more update in 2011 or last year, but as far as I could see from the specification sheet, the latest model after 2009, is using a newer engine, that would give a lot more mileage/liter at the same if not more horse power. I.e. the 1.8L would do 15KM/L as compare to mine which is 14KM/L. Well, don't look down on the 1KM/L extra though, imagine 40 liters of gasoline, with that extra 40Km, I could travel for another extra trip before filling it up again, which can be quite handy. The only surprising element for me in the latest model is that the 4WD is only available on the 1.8L version but not the 2.0 version, which is kind of strange.

Anyway, that's all for now. Thanks for reading, and I'll try to check this blog more often now so that I won't missed out anymore questions.

Regular service - 2012-04-09

Another day of bringing Is-Is to a regular service. This time around I need to spend about RM550++ to have the service done. The service inclusive of the usual oil change, wheel alignment & balancing, camber adjustment (2 front wheels), car wash, and the wiper replacement.

This time I did ask them to check the petrol cap lid for me, but they can't do any fixing to it, so they recommended me to bring it to any accessories shop or any car repair garage to have it fix.

Fixing a new car number plate & new finding 2012-02-21

Due to the reason that somebody knocked the front of my car and causing one of the letter to fall off from the plate, I need to replace the car number plate with a new one. Went to a car accessories shop this morning to get it done. Due to the reason that the font used is different from what they have, I need to redo the whole thing. The worker took out the whole plate, measured the size of the plate, and then redo it using a whole new acrylic plate plus new fonts. The whole thing costs me about RM45.

The other thing that I found out about Isis is with its petrol lid. I noticed that the lid is out of shape, and it can't really close properly now unless with a little bit of force being applied. Found out from some Japanese website that this is a common problem with Isis. I guess I'll need to bring it over to Vision Auto again to see if they could help me out with the problem later.

Routine Maintenance 2011-11-21

This is my another routine maintenance for Isis. This time it costs me about RM 1,6xx.xx, which is below what I'd expected it would be. This time even though I've asked for them to help me do the wheel alignment and balancing, but somehow rather this time it does not require the adjustment of the camber, which came quite a surprise. The thing that costs a lot this time would be the disc brake, which is at the costs of RM 600 per piece, with a total of 2.

Routine Maintenance - 2011-05-16

A day before the Wesak Day holiday, I brought my Isis to Vision Auto for the routine service. This time it costs me quite a lot of money, RM 1000++. On top of the regular minor service + wheel alignment & balancing, I need to replace the brake pad for RM200++, the belt for RM200++, and finally the air filter for RM 80.

But not all being done yet because they told me the disc brake is worn, so I need to replace that too for RM1200. I did a check on the disc brake surface and found out that indeed it has to be changed. I'll have to save for that for the upcoming servicing soon.

Regular Service - 6th December, 2010

After stretching it to exceed 2,000KM since last month, I was finally able to bring my Isis for its regular service at Vision Auto. They have my service history recorded in their database, and therefore the personnel that attended to me said "wow, stretched to the limit?" My reply was "Well, I don't have the fund to do the service last month" Then he replied (literally translated from Cantonese) "Please don't say that"

This time as I expected I needed to do an intermediate service, which include changing of spark plug, changing of automatic transmission fluid, brake fluid, coolant fluid, cleaning the throttle body, and some other regular servicing. As usual I did the wheel alignment, wheel balancing and also wheel rotation. Surprisingly for this time, I don't need to do up the camber, which is a good news to me.

Total up everything, it costs me RM7++.++ this time to get the service done. After the service, I felt the difference as it responded much better now.

ABS light indicator was lighting...

Yes, the ABS light indicator on the dashboard was lighting this morning when I was going to my usual place to have my breakfast. So after having my breakfast, I drove it to Vision Auto to check up what is the problem. The mechanic used the computer diagnosis machine to check the problem and found out that the brake switch is malfunctioned, so I need to replace it.

The total cost for this is around RM 17*.**. This is the second time that the brake switch is malfunctioned; the first time was 3 years ago. So right now I suspect that the electronic switch could last for at least 3 years, which mean I'll have to prepare to change this thing again in 2013.

Wheel balancing, alignment, camber adjustment, and tires rotation

After coming back from Genting, the next day I heard some funny sound coming out from the front of the car. It becomes so irritating and worrying that I brought it to Vision Auto to have them check it out, and also getting the wheels to be rotated & realigned.

They can't diagnose what is the problem because they couldn't hear a single noise. But, the mechanic told me that the camber of the car has to be readjusted because it is seriously misaligned.

The whole thing cost me RM 135.45. The noise disappeared after this service but it came back again after a few days. The irritating thing is that it does not come out all the time; sometime I would hear it and sometime I would not hear it. The mechanic told me not to worry about the sound because as long as it does not affect the driving significantly, then it should be fine.

Right now my choice is to bear with that irritation for a while until it became prominent; otherwise it's really hard to see what's going on with it. Probably I was just doing wheel related services, so I will have to wait until next time to have a full service check-up, which they would perform computer diagnosis, and hopefully they could rectify the problem by then.

Journey to Genting Highland

For the first time I drove my family (mother, 2 sisters, and 2 nieces) to Genting Highland for a holiday on Friday, 3rd September 2010. The road leading up to Genting Highland is a winding road with a few bumps, but Isis still managed to pull it off quite reasonably. On the way up there, I spotted another Isis driving up to Genting as well, but the driver is able to drive it up the hill faster than mine.

We reached our apartment around 6:30pm, and the mist started to become thicker, making the visibility very low. While driving out to find a place to eat dinner, mist is so thick that I can't even see the surrounding, but to rely on the road line, the lights, and have to drive very carefully at lower gear. The fog lamps of my Isis are burnt, and I haven't change them yet, so I have to rely on the main headlamps.

Coming back down from Genting is a nightmare to me because of the number of bumps that they put on the road. In my opinion, based on my experience driving on hilly roads back in Tawau, those bumps can be hazardous to the car and could prove dangerous because the constant braking could really wear out the brake even faster. Plus, it could damage the car suspension as well. I have no idea why they want to set it up in such a manner. Yes, driving down hill can be dangerous and measurement has to be done to prevent/reduce it, but putting up the road bumps on a down hill road, and the kind of bump that could damage the car suspension? I don't really think that's a good thorough planning.

The key to driving down hill is to engage into lower gear, which would allow the car to go down the hill slower, and could reduce the amount of force for the braking. The problem I suspect is probably people just doesn't know how to engage into lower gear while going down hill, esp. in an automatic transmission car. I normally would brake the car fully during down hill drive until it is slow enough to engage into lower gear, and then release it. It is the same for both manual and automatic transmission.

Lastly, despite all the setback that I faced during the Genting trip, Isis has performed well. I must admit that for the kind of road in Genting, it is a very disadvantage for my Isis because although it has no problem to go through bump, but when there are more people in the car, it added up to the weight and as a result of that it is more likely to hit the bottom of the car, which has been made so low due to the body kit and its longer body. As a result of that, in the future should this kind of situation arise again, I hope I could have a better car that could do it for me, i.e. the Land Cruiser. For normal city road driving, Isis will still do the job.

Maintenance - 7th June 2010

Yup, it is the time of the year again to bring my Isis for maintenance in Vision auto again. This time the cost is RM 800++. They did the usual oil change, brake check, etc. Since I did a full service last round, the servicing will only cost me nearly RM 300. The reason for it to go up to RM 800++ is because the rear tires are showing signs of cracking, so need to replace them with a new pair of tires. The cost for each tire is RM 270, so I have to pay RM 540 for the tires.

Tire Change

I noticed yesterday that the rear tires are wearing off pretty badly. The outer treads are totally worn and I could spot a few cracking little holes. This worries me because the worst thing that could happen is to have the car tire punctured in the middle of a journey.

So, I rang up Vision Auto yesterday to ask for the pricing to change the tire. They quoted me with 1 pair of Michelin tires with each costs RM260, which is within my expectation (I was expecting something like RM 350 for each one). Then I drove it to change the tires this morning. The total costs is RM 556.75, inclusive of wheel balancing (FOC) and wheel alignment.

Couple of facts about Isis here that I found out from the user manual after I was advice by my sister to check and do some finding about the tires rotation for this car. It might sounds silly, but I never did any tire rotation at all, not even once, thus my tires are wasted in a sense that they don't wear off equally. Now, from the user manual, it is stated that the tire rotation has to be done in every 5,000KM, and the rotation has to be done in the format of front right -> back right, front left -> back left, back left -> front right, back right -> front left. So, knowing this, I'll have to visit either Vision or any other car workshop that could help me to do the rotation.

Major Service at Vision Auto - Update

After my previous good experience with Vision Auto, I decided to bring it back there to have a major service this time, plus wheel alignment as well since I haven't done any wheel alignment for about a year.

The total cost this time is RM 1279.65, which covers engine oil change, automatic transmission oil change, automatic transmission gasket, automatic transmission filter, spark plug, wheel alignment, camber correction, camber bolt, wheel balancing, brake servicing, and snow wash plus vacuum. At first the guy told me that the spark plug will be about RM 200++, but since my Isis is a 1.8L engine, it costs RM 30++. The driving feels much better now after the service.

It's a good thing that I asked them to check the wheel alignment for me because I did notice that my front tyres are starting to wear out, which is quite alarming. I guess it has to do with the camber since they told me that it has to be corrected. They shifted the front tyres to back, and would advice me to change it on my next service, which I've already planning to do so.

Then, after I went back to work, I got a phone call from them saying that his mechanic forgot to inform him that my car battery has to be replaced for it's not in good condition anymore. So, I went this morning to get it replaced, and it costs me RM 260. The battery comes with 1 year warranty, so if there's any problem, I could still get it warranted.

Regular Service - Vision Auto - TRD Malaysia

Brought the car to Vision auto for a servicing this morning. Read from certain auto forum that this Vision auto will charge a lot of money for car servicing, so I've never given any thought to bring my car here for a service, unless I need a major repair. After the experience that I have with them for fixing my car ABS sensor, A/C, and the Shift-Lock problem, I decided to give it a go.

First off, the technical personnel would go to my car, read the tag beside the passenger side door to get the model number. This is some practice that I never seen any motor servicing shop would do. Next stop, he recorded down the mileage of my car. Then, he recommended me the things that should be serviced for this car model at that40,000KM mileage - transmission oil change, engine oil change, and AC oil change. The amount was a whopping RM 784.00... That's a lot of money, but is it expensive? I think it's not that expensive considering that from the price list, they'll be doing a lot of checking and would change a lot of things that's necessary to be changed, that's fair enough.

Because I've done my transmission change before in Eneos car center that included flushing out the old transmission oil, and I've done my AC oil change with them before from my history of servicing with this company, all I need is to do the normal car servicing, which includes the normal inspection, brake servicing, and engine oil change. The whole thing costs me RM 289.00. It's about RM99.00 more than Eneos Car Center, but I could feel that there's a difference with that RM99.00. First, I could feel that the engine run smoother with the TOM's engine oil as compare to the Eneos engine oil. Second, they did service the brake because it feels more grip now when it's pressed. Thirdly, I could come back to service my car after 10,000KM as compare to Eneos Car Center, who always wanted me to come back to service every 5,000KM.

They do have a client database that keep tracks on the history of servicing of their customers, so that they could recommend on the servicing options. This is good because at least they won't simply mess around with your car. I'm not sure if it's expensive, but at least I could get a reliable service.

The breaking down of the air condition and Shift-Lock system

I was frustrated one month ago because the air condition was not functioning at all. On top of that, I need to deal with the frustrating issue of not able to release the gear out from P. Air condition is one thing that I can't stand because in this hot weather, it's inconvenient to have no air conditioning especially if I have passenger in my car.

So I decided to take my Is-Is to see "Doctor" to fix the air conditioning plus fixing the problem with the gear issue. I brought it to Vision Motor, the TRD (Toyota Racing Development) Malaysia located in Bangsar to fix the problem. I was afraid that the gear box will cause me a lot of money because I heard from a friend of mine, if the problem is with the gear box, then it will cause a lot of money, which I don't really think that's the case because I could still able to shift out from P with the unlock button.

It took them quite a while to find the cause of the problem, but it turns out as a good news to me because I don't need to change any major parts. All my car needed is to change the air condition oil and the filter for the air condition to work again, plus changing a faulty sensor located at the brake to make the Shift-Lock system work again. Alas, it costs me RM 660.00 for the whole thing. Still, it could be even worst.

So now I knew that the best place to fix the problem that my car has would be here, Vision, because they do know their stuff. They do provide servicing as well, ranging from minor servicing or RM 220.00++ to major servicing of RM 880.00++. One day I may have to save enough to bring my Is-Is for a major service in order to make sure that it will still be in its tip-top condition.

First long distance drive PLUS some weird behavior

I always wanted to know on how my Isis would fair when it comes to long distance driving. That day has finally came on 9th March 2009 on the occasion to visit a family in Jengkal, Pahang. The journey took about 2 and a half hour, and the statistic shows that Isis could do 14KM/L, could do 120KM/H, and would still provide a comfort ride on the road. So, it's alright to drive it once in a while for long distance.

However, this lately I find that there's a lot of squiky, dangling noises coming from the driver side dash board, from the door, and from the co-driver seat. It's not a major problem because the noise would only come after Isis was taken a trip on some bumpy or un-even road. I have this experience with my brother's Land Cruiser before, that if it's driven off road, all those cranky, thunder-roaring metal sound would come out. Probably this is a norm for Toyota car like this kind.

But there's another major thing that I'm worried about is the gear box. The gear box in my Isis is a Super ECT, gated shift transmission. The gate shift, as I noticed, would not allow me to engage the gear if the brake is on. However, when I was in stalled position, I pressed the brake, and I'll be usually able to engage the gear, but there are times that I was not able to even though I've pressed the brake pedal. What I have to do, is to shake my bump a bit to make the car move a bit in order to make something loosen, so that the gear box can be engaged. I was hoping that it will not be the gear box problem because I can't really afford to pay for any major servicing at this point.

Possibly Major Servicing (Oh Dear...)

This time, not only I have to bring Is-Is for my usual servicing at Eneos car center, I have to bring it to Lim Tayar as well to check out the balance of the wheels. First, let's talk about the car servicing at Eneos.

This time, I have to spend a bit more money on top of the usual RM 190 servicing package. I need to spend another extra RM 54 for the air filter, because the mechanic said that the air filter was dirty-beyond-being-clean. Well, is that a job well done? I do think so, because I've been driving my car quite a lot, plus I'd enter into construction site to fetch people, so there's no wonder that the air filter has to sustain all the dust and dirt that float around in the air.

Then, I took my car to Lim Tayar in Taman Tun Dr Ismail to check out the balancing of the wheel. Guess what, the superviser/manager (I don't like to ask people's name or position, so forgive me for simply addressing this person) told me that the front disk brake rotor needs to be re-surfaced. I was told to bring it back here and let them work on it, which will normally take about 3 hours for the things to work.

But instead of bringing it to Lim Tayar, I brought it to Eneos again to have them check it out for me. This time, the mechanic said that the disk rotor is alright, but the brake pad will have to be changed. Amazingly, the brake pad costs me RM 270!!! Oh Dear, how could this be? Guess I have no choice but to change it. I don't know what's the brand, and I don't really check it on the spot, for I was wandering around 1 Utama to kill my time, while waiting for my car to be serviced.

After the servicing of the brake was done, I have to adjust myself to get used to the action of the brake because the mechanic seems to adjust the action to a bit lower. I started to hear noises coming out from the bottom of the car whenever I was turning my car early in the morning. It doesn't seems to be a major problem because I don't hear that sound after morning, and the car can still turn and maneuver normally. Well, hopefully it's only the effect of the hot-expand-cold-shrink.

I really have to take it to Vision auto one day for a full check up. Oh Dear, that means I need to catch a lot of 'bugs' first because I could do so...

Third servicing

It's about time to go for another round of servicing. This time, as usual, I brought it to Eneos Car Center in 1 Utama for servicing, and instead of the semi-synthetic, I opted for the Performance synthetic 5W-40 engine oil. It costs me about RM 190 for the engine oil plus the oil filter.

The 5W-40 does improves the car performance, for I could feel that the acceleration is better than before either my Isis is in full load or off load.

Punctured Tyre - A Terrible yet Managable Disaster

One of the fearful things for me when it comes to driving is to have a punctured tyre. My Isis got a screw nail stuck inside one of it's rear wheel. I didn't notice it until I wind down the window on 1 of the occasions where I could hear a constant 'tin' sound coming from the back, while I was sending my friends back home after a basket ball game. It shows how well the sound insulation developed by Toyota that you couldn't even hear such sound.

It was a very long nail. In my past experience, while I was driving my ex-fiancee's Proton Wira and the Peugeot 405, I have to change a pair of tyre whenever there was a punctured tyre either front or rear, because the tyre will always be damaged beyond repair. Thank God for this one because I noticed it early, so all I need to do is to patch it.

I brought it to Lim Tayar located outside of Taman Tun Dr. Ismail. They gave a pretty good service there. The patching plus the alignments cost me about RM 100.00 after discount with Jusco card.

Now, Isis comes with a 'doughnut' half-size spare tyre. Although it was smaller, but yet it still able to let you drive from point a to point b without problem. But, I wouldn't dare to drive faster while my Isis is fixed with this wheel, although I heard that there are people who drive 120KM/h on the KL-Seremban highway, in a Toyota Harrier, with 1 rear tyre replaced with a 'doughnut' tyre.